El Sur También Existe

By Montefrío

That “the South Exists as Well” is something too many from the North too often forget, or so believe the probably-more-than 400 million inhabitants of South America, the fourth largest continent.

The poem “El Sur También Existe,” by the late Uruguayan poet Mario Benedetti (1920-2009), popularized by the song of the same name performed worldwide since 1985 by Catalan singer Joan Manuel Serrat, has become something of a “Continental Anthem” down here. Anyone interested in a reading an acceptable translation of the poem can see one here: https://tambienexiste.wordpress.com/el-sur-tambien-existe/. Bendetti, a Castro supporter and lifelong leftie of bourgeois and Italian origin, has never been a favorite of mine, but he’s revered down here. My near-contemporary Serrat (b. 1943), also a leftie, has never been a favorite either, but like Benedetti, he’s still the bee’s knees in this neck of the large woods.

There’s no getting around one thing, however: the South exists and it’d be well for more northerners to take note of it. As a northerner myself, I find it a somewhat peculiar place, but on balance a quite likable one in which I plan to spend what remains of my life. My son, who lives next door, married an Argentine young woman of Spanish/Greek/Guaraní descent, so my grandsons are by white nationalist standards not to be included in whiteworld, something I find it not very difficult to accept, regardless of the fact that down here they’re seen to be as white as white can be: “our gringuitos” as they’re affectionately called by our fellow villagers of darker skin tone.

In my overall experience and observation, skin tone simply isn’t much of a big deal in daily life. To be sure, this varies from country to country, place to place, in politics and social stratification, but by and large, the big divide is socio-economic rather than racial with the possible exception of Brazil with its large population of African descent. To a lesser extent, there’s a bit of that in Colombia and Venezuela (both bordering the Caribbean) as well. Bolivia, with its large pure Amerind population, is a case unto itself.

This continent is largely mestizo, although the Southern Cone countries Uruguay, Argentina, Chile) all have a strong still-entirely-white presence, something about which precious few here seem to care. North Americans, however, are more concerned about the growing and often illegal mestizo presence, something not well understood by South Americas, who take it for granted and have learned to value coexistence, probably owing to its long history here.

I’ve believed (perhaps erroneously) for some time now, that South America represents the “final frontier” for Western culture and civilization, given that the Oceania nations are out of most folks’ financial means, plus which I see them as vulnerable to Chinese hegemony down the road. Believe me, folks, there’s a world of opportunity awaiting down here, but as one might suspect, there are hurdles to be jumped for those interested in the possibilities.

The South exists. What it’s like, how it works, what one can expect during a visit… These and other topics will receive attention one by one assuming there’s sufficient interest. Even if one has no interest in coming down here, learning a bit more about the place can’t hurt. The South has been coning north for a long time, perhaps too long. Time for the tide to reverse.